SOME AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS IX DALMATIA 87 



§ 3. The FARMING CONTRACT. 



This contract is from a legal point of view a lease sui generis, whereas 

 from an economic point of view it ma^^ be regarded as imposing a sUghtly 

 modified feudal tenure. 



Its content is as follows : 



1. The proprietor lets to the cultivator the land when it is still 

 hdng waste. The cultivator must therefore bring it under cultivation 

 before he can farm it. 



2. The duration of the contract depends on the duration of crops. 

 Where grain is grown it is from one to two years, in the case of vineyards 

 from twenty-five to fifty years. 



3. The contract obliges the lessee to give a part of the gross products, 

 generally a quarter, to the proprietor. 



Such is the content of the normal and most usual type of contract. 

 Exceptionally there aie deviations from it as regards the duration of the 

 lease and its terms. 



The most important results of such contracts are : 



a) Extensive agriculture. 



b) Difficulties, unfortunateh^ too frequent, arising between the pro- 

 prittor and the lessee. 



Since the lessee is obliged to render a share of the gross products to 

 the proprietor, he does no more than cultivate the land on the extensive 

 system, for otherwise he would have to give the proprietor all or almost all 

 its net 3'ield owing to the law as to a rental which is less than proportionate. 

 Extensive agriculture is facilitated by the fact that the lessee is as a rule 

 himself a small proprietor. It is therefore entirely to his interest to culti- 

 vate his own property first, and the land he rents is in consequence often 

 not cultivated in time. 



The lessee looks upon the proprietor as a parasite who steals from 

 him a part of liis products. He therefore seeks by every means in his power 

 to take back what he considers to have been robbed from him. 



About 1894 an event occurred which resulted in the supersession of a 

 fair number of farming contracts by ordinars' leases. 



Towards 1890 the phylloxera appeared in the countr5^ Gradually the 

 vineyards of Dalmatia were devastated. Tliis fact in itself annulled the 

 contracts relevant to them. Everywhere people began to replace the indi- 

 genous vine with the American variety. Plantation however necessitated 

 larger expenditure. Contracts of lease are more easily adapted than 

 farming contracts to plantations of this kind ; and so it came about that 

 a misfortune produced good results. The farming contracts were reduced 

 by 20 per cent. 



